After JB Hi-Fi jumped the gun last night, HTC has today made the Desire Eye official in an exclusive partnership with the retailer.
First revealed at HTC’s Double Exposure event in New York last month, the Desire Eye is HTC’s play for the photographer – “the ultimate imaging superphone”.
Beyond the 13MP cameras on the front and rear of the device, the specs are quite familiar to those of us familiar with the company’s high-end One M8 – we’re talking 5.2-inch full HD screen, Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and SD card support with HTC’s BoomSound speakers and a 2400mAh battery. Notably, HTC’s finally gotten on board the water/dust-proof phone train, with the phone attracting an IP57 rating (meaning it’s dustproof, and rated for protection against immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1m).
Understandably, HTC is putting focus on the photography features of the phone with the dedicated camera button and HTC’s Eye Experience software allowing you to crop yourself into photos using both sensors, voice shutter, face tracking in video calls and simultaneous shooting of both pictures and video from both sensors allowing a wide range of creative options for photographers.
The Australian release of the Desire Eye is a 4G phone that’s broadly compatible with our 4G networks, including the local 700Mhz networks getting up and running in the coming months. There’s good news for Optus customers too, with support for 4G Plus (TDD 2300Mhz) listed, though the news isn’t so good for Vodafone customers – the company’s newly minted 850Mhz 4G+ spectrum isn’t supported.
HTC says stock is due to arrive in stores from November 20 (that’s this Thursday) at $799. It seems that only the coral red version will be ranged in Australia.
You can find more detailed information about the phone in our October 9 launch report.
Are you interested in the Desire Eye? What do you think of the phone’s photographic capabilities? Tell us in the comments!
Hmm seems like an interesting device, but I will just wait for the One M9 next year.